Music professor Paul Tynan wins ECMA for Jazz Recording of the Year

An East Coast Music Award (ECMA) has come home to StFX. Music professor Paul Tynan, together with longtime collaborator California saxophonist Aaron Lington, has won the 2018 Jazz Recording of the Year award for 'Bicoastal Collective: Chapter 5,’ at the ECMAs held May 2-6, 2018 in Halifax, NS.

“Humbled and honoured are the two words I can use to describe this feeling,” says Prof. Tynan, who teaches jazz trumpet, jazz history and arranging at StFX, and is currently playing in Europe.

“I received word of winning the ECMA from a good friend on PEI via text after just finishing my last night performing at The Hat Bar in Berlin. We had an impromptu party to celebrate there. When you pour your heart and soul in a project you always wonder if it effected people; maybe made them feel something. The recognition from the ECMAs is maybe a small nod to say that yes we did.”

StFX music alumni also fared well at the ECMAs.

Alumnus Christien Raymakers, who graduated with a BA in music in 2015, won the Dance Recording of the Year award (as ‘CRaymak’) for his ‘Play With Fire.’

Alumnus Jason Roach, who graduated with an honours music degree in 2006, as part of the group Còig, won the Roots/Traditional Recording of the Year for ‘Rove.’